Narrative Social Capital: A Reflexive Solution

Social capital of entrepreneurs has been studied through various perspectives in different contexts. Theories of social capital include such broad concepts as 'trust', 'connection', and 'mutual interests', all of which have different places inside the theory; however, not many theories link social bonding to being a result of reflexive solutions. This study highlights this theoretical perspective. Utilising Archer's 'theory of reflexivity' (2007) with a sample of entrepreneurs from beauty businesses in Russia, we draw links between a personal concern of establishing one's own business and a reflexive choice of building a practice of social bounding within the community. In-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 representatives of the profession have been conducted using a criterion sampling technique. Proceeding with narrative analysis, we come up with four portraits of entrepreneurs and the way they build their 'social bonding projects'. These portraits pertain to the 'four modes of reflexivity' proposed by M. Archer and represent various interests and concerns which unfold along with the distributions of structural and cultural resources and constraints for the entrepreneurs. We conclude that each 'reflexivity mode' doesn't only constitute particular personal traits which result in a constellation of concerns and lead to distinct entrepreneurial practices in the market but also has a distinct trajectory of building social capital with one's own community. These forms of reflexively built social bonds are a part of the individual solution to the problem of the extreme competitiveness of the market, where the need 'to be seen' overrides the concern of 'being who you are'.